


Secret

by space_mermaid



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, F/F, Gen, Grieving, Mental Health Issues, Pre-Relationship, Trauma, neurodivergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27131933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_mermaid/pseuds/space_mermaid
Summary: Cho is trying to move on after Cedric's death. But a younger girl at her boarding school threatens to reveal the secret hanging over her like a dark cloud. Muggle!AU
Relationships: Cho Chang & Luna Lovegood
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1





	Secret

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Clover for the ff.net GGE2017.
> 
> Warnings for: mentions of death, trauma, grieving, mental illness, neurodivergence, blood, mild violence, swearing

“Dare.” 

“You always pick dare,” Marietta whined. 

“Why are you complaining? You should be glad you get to humiliate me.” 

“I would never!” Marietta pushed Cho’s shoulder playfully. 

“I’ll do it then,” Tracey offered, sitting cross-legged beside the couch. 

“Do your worst,” Cho folded her arms. 

“I dare you to…” Tracey steepled her fingers together. “Finish my maths homework.” 

“Piss off!” Cho scoffed. 

“I dared you!” 

“Okay, what about this?” Marietta cut in. “Text Harry that you fancy him.” 

Cho’s heart sunk. “I’ll do the homework.” 

Marietta laughed. “Ooowoo, you do fancy him.” 

Cho shook her head, previous mirth evaporating. 

Tracey patted her knee. “Come on, Mattie, you know that’s not true. Cho obviously still likes…you know.” 

“I’ll be back in a sec,” Cho stood up, blinking rapidly. “Just going to the loo.” 

“Should have picked truth,” Marietta muttered, as Cho left the common room. 

Cho closed the cubicle door behind her, burying her face in her hands. _Smoke. Flashing lights. Shrieks._

A long while later, Cho picked herself up. She washed her hands and extracted her toothbrush from her toiletries bag. 

The bathroom door creaked open. 

Cho turned to see a wispy, barefoot girl slip in. Vaguely familiar. “You know this is the sixth form bathroom?” 

The girl – _Luna_ , if memory served – shrugged. “What’s your secret?” 

Cho frowned, mouth full of toothpaste. “I doh- ah- a secre-…” 

Luna stood behind her, eyes trained on her reflection as Cho finished brushing and rinsed her mouth out. Cho wiped her face on a towel, sighing, then whorled around to find Luna mere centimetres away. 

“Christ!” Cho jumped. “What?” 

Luna’s platinum blonde ringlets fell like a half-drawn curtain over icy blue eyes. “You do.” 

Cho rolled her eyes and pushed past her to the door. 

“I’ll find out, you know.” 

Cho’s hand froze on the knob and she cast a withering glare over her shoulder. “Sod off, Luna.” 

The girl only gave an eerie smile in return. 

* * *

The football field was covered in a thin layer of frost. Cho tapped each boot on the spray-painted corner, the grass crunching softly under the spikes. The cold air was tight in her lungs, puffed out in foggy bursts as she trained. Blood pounded hot in her ears, and Cho rested her tingling hands on her head as she walked off the burn. 

The floodlights lit the pitch in the dark morning. The stands were empty, save for a lone, pale figure. Cho’s heart lurched and she stopped in her tracks. 

“You ‘right?” Alicia asked, handing Cho her water bottle. 

“Yeah,” Cho glanced back up at the stands, squinting. “It’s just that…that weird year ten girl. Why is she watching training all of a sudden?” 

Alicia shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe she wants to see the sunrise?” 

“Hmm.” Cho slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed back to the Ravenclaw house, the feeling of eyes boring into her back. 

* * *

It was raining. The tall grass clung like sticky gum to her calves. A street lamp illuminated the glistening road, water streaking into the ditch like a river. 

She fumbled her way around the car, slippery gravel tripping up her heels. The driver’s side door was crumbled like aluminium foil. 

Her fingers dug vainly at the handle, the window, smearing blood. 

* * *

Cho walked out of the councillor’s office, arms weighed down with a new book and heart weighed down with old grief. She clicked her tongue three times as she passed each door in the long corridor. She rounded into the staircase, thudding steps bouncing off timber. She tapped the baluster as she reached the landing, gaze lifting momentarily from the floor. _Blood._

Cho gasped, book crashing to the floor. “L-Luna? What happened?” 

The ghost white girl was sitting on the steps above, chin resting on her hand, elbow pitched on her knee. “Nothing.” 

“What happened to your face? Do you need the nurse?” 

“I fell.” 

Cho picked up her book. “You need to get that cut cleaned up.” 

“It’ll heal.” 

“Well,” Cho frowned. “At least let me walk you to your dorm.” 

Luna languidly rose and turned to follow the other girl up the stairs. Cho stole a glance as they trudged. It did seem to be clotting. The blood had dried in her hair. Cho swallowed, fists clenching around her book. As they walked into the common room, a huddle of girls on one of the couches sniggered. Cho narrowed her eyes at them, while Luna picked up her pace, heading towards the year 10 dormitory. 

Cho watched her go, then strode over to the girls on the couch. 

“What’s so funny?” she demanded. 

The girls smirked at each other. 

“Weren’t you little trolls smoking in the toilets last week? I’ll bet Principle McGonagall would be very interested to hear that before she finalises report cards.” 

Their faces soured. 

“Don’t worry, we weren’t laughing at you,” a girl with gold wire glasses piped up. 

“Yeah, we’re all, you know... Really sorry for your loss,” another added, playing with her long plait. “We were just laughing at Loony.” 

Cho raised her eyebrows. “Loony?” 

“Loony Luna,” the first girl whispered, eyes rounding. “She’s a total nutcase.” 

“Why do you say that?” Cho asked. 

The girls looked at each other. 

“She’s always talking to herself.” 

“She walks around campus at night. With no shoes on.” 

“She doesn’t eat anything from the canteen. She thinks it’s poisoned.” 

“Oh my god, do you guys remember when we had to dissect worms in Biology?” 

“She grabbed the container of worms-” 

“And threw them out the window!” 

“Huh,” Cho furrowed her brow. “Have you guys told a teacher about this?” 

“They already know. They won’t do anything about it.” 

“Yeah, they’re not the ones who have to share a room with her.” 

“They’ll be sorry when one of us gets murdered.” 

“Suzie!” 

“What? It’s true!” 

The girls dissolved into giggles and Cho walked away, ears buzzing. Back in her dormitory, she dropped the book on her bedside table and tapped the bedpost. 

* * *

She found the note under her pillow. Letters made of stickers, glossy and mismatched. 

_I know your secret._

Cho’s heart stilled, body frozen. She scrunched the note up and shoved it in her bedside table drawer. 

She marched fuming into the common room, but finding it empty of the suspected perpetrator, she proceeded down the stairs. She stumbled over said perpetrator on the bottom step. 

“Jesus Christ!” Cho screeched as she righted herself, kicking the offending shoe for good measure. “Are you trying to kill me?” 

Luna shook her head. 

“Then why are you hiding around corners and shoving your feet through the stairs?” 

“Just stretching,” Luna replied, her voice dreamy. 

Cho grabbed her by the arm and spun them around the bottom of the stairs, her face close and voice low. “And why are you sneaking into my room and putting notes under my pillow?” 

A strange smile lit up Luna’s frosty eyes. “Did you like my stickers?” 

Cho pushed her away in disgust. “You really are loony.” 

The smile faded and Luna stepped forward, face darkening. “People in glass houses shouldn’t say such things.” 

Cho scoffed. “What that’s supposed to mean?” 

“I know your secret.” 

Cho clenched her teeth, glaring. “Why do you keep saying that? I don’t have any secret!” 

Luna stepped closer still and leant over Cho’s shoulder. Her whisper tickled in Cho’s ear. “You’re a witch.” 

Cho’s mouth dropped open and she blinked. Luna pulled back, intense gaze boring into her face. A strangled laugh broke from Cho’s throat and she put a hand to her mouth to muffle it. 

“That’s...hilarious, Luna, wow.” 

Luna didn’t laugh, expression still stony and serious. “Is it?” 

“Yes,” Cho wiped her eyes. “Witches aren’t real, sweetie. I think you’ve been watching too many fantasy movies.” 

“They are real. I’ve seen it.” 

“Seen what?” 

“I’ve seen you do magic.” 

Cho gave an exasperated sigh. “Whatever. This is too much. I think you should see the councillor or something -” 

“That’s why you see the councillor, isn’t it?” Luna pressed. “Because you feel guilty.” 

Cho’s lips pressed together. She dragged Luna into the nearest bathroom, luckily deserted. 

“You really should mind your own damn business, Luna.” 

“You feel guilty about Cedric,” the name pinged off the tiles, slapping as it echoed. “You couldn’t save him with your magic.” 

Cho breathed deeply trying to calm down by counting the wisps of blonde hair springing out of Luna’s plaits and sticking to her forehead. “I don’t have magic, Luna. I’m not a witch. Witches. Are not. Real.” 

“If you had done your protective spell,” Luna continued, and Cho’s heart sank with the weight of nausea. “He wouldn’t have died.” 

“Shut up -” Cho demanded, face heating, mouth tingling like she was about to throw up.

“You could have protected him with your charm. You didn’t. So you think it’s your fault he died.” 

Cho smacked her face. “SHUT UP! You stupid, crazy little bitch!” 

The imprint of Cho’s hand glowed on Luna’s pale cheek. 

Red liked the blood on her hands. On his face. Torn apart. 

Cho crumpled like the car, eyes watering like the rain that had blurred her vision. Tiles hard like the road. There was wailing like the sirens. 

Her clammy hand felt another. Fingers interlocked. Another hand stroked her hair, until the wailing subsided into quiet sobs. 

* * *

They walked the perimeter of the field. Luna spoke of her mother. Cho spoke of that night. The party at Harry Potter’s house. It has been too loud, too bright. Cedric had offered to take her back to school. It was raining. 

“So you don’t cast spells?” Luna asked, eyeing Cho suspiciously as they rounded a corner. 

Cho stuffed her gloved hands into her pocket and shook her head. “No. I just count sometimes. Or touch things. Councillor Pomfrey calls it compulsions.” 

“To stop bad things from happening?” 

“Kind of. Yes.” 

“Seems like a spell to me,” Luna muttered. 

Cho rolled her eyes and pushed Luna’s shoulder. “So you’ll stop stalking me now, right?” 

Luna sighed, twirling her hair between her fingers. “If you want.” 

“Yes, I want,” Cho huffed, breath fogging. Her voice softened. “But maybe we can just hang out like this again. Like normal people?” 

“We’re not normal though.” 

They stopped to watch the sun peek over the school building, melting the frost beneath their feet. 

“No, I suppose not,” Cho took Luna’s chilled hand and smiled. “It’s okay though. I’ll keep you.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Review please and thank you :)


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